City briefs

Olathe residents injured after truck hits tree

An Olathe man was lifeflighted Saturday evening to University of Kansas Hospital after the pickup he was driving struck a tree in rural Douglas County.

About 7 p.m. Saturday, Douglas County Sheriff’s deputies were called to a spot near the intersection of 1100 N. and 1900 E. roads, southwest of Eudora, said Lt. Kathy Tate of the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office.

Robert J. Maple Jr., Olathe, left the roadway and hit a tree in a wooded area, Tate said.

A spokesman from the hospital could not provide details about Maple’s condition late Saturday.

A passenger, Kendall Rickerson, Olathe, was transported to Lawrence Memorial Hospital. Information about Rickerson’s condition also was unavailable.

Tate said neither Maple nor Rickerson was ejected from the vehicle, a 2002 Chevrolet Silverado.

Third-place finish for Lawrence racers

They had to push the car across the finish line, but the group of Lawrence school district students competing in the cross-country Great Race still feel like they won.

“The goal of the Great Race is ‘To finish is to win,’ and we pushed it across the finish line,” said Dave Tenpenny, the students’ auto instructor at Lawrence High School. “It was like the end of the Super Bowl.”

The group placed third in the race’s amateur division as they rolled into Monterey, Calif., two weeks and 4,000 miles after launching the competition in Jacksonville, Fla.

The car lasted the entire route until just before the finish line, Tenpenny said, when the points failed on the ignition system.

“Just a little piece of plastic fell off,” he said.

The team that drove the ’57 Chevy Bel Air bore uniforms for the first time at the race’s final banquet Saturday evening, courtesy of Lawrence resident Nancy Wickersheim.

Tenpenny said the team should return Wednesday to Lawrence.

Author’s talk in city set for rebroadcast

Author Thomas Frank’s June 14 appearance at the Lawrence Arts Center will be rebroadcast at 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. Monday on C-SPAN2, Sunflower Broadband Channel 28.

The 90-minute segment features Frank reading from his latest book, “What’s the Matter with Kansas?” and answering audience members’ questions. The reading was first aired June 27.

In his book, Frank marvels at conservative Republicans’ success in using cultural, hot-bottom issues to win the support of Kansas’ poor and working-class voters while passing tax breaks for the rich.

A former Kansas University student, Frank now lives in Washington, D.C. He is a contributing editor for Harper’s magazine.